Campus Monitor - University of California, Berkeley

Student Voices

December 5, 2017 – UC Berkeley Jewish Student Group (Tikvah Executive Board) – “UC Berkeley’s response to this particular incident got it right. Speaking for the administration, spokesman Dan Mogulof said, “While we do not believe that all criticism of Israel’s governmental policies is inherently anti-Semitic, the social media posts in question clearly crossed the line”. Bazian indeed did cross that line — a line that fewer and fewer faculty members seem to respect — and was forced to publicly apologize. But was this an isolated case? Unfortunately, no. Bazian is no stranger to accusations of anti-Semitism. When he was still a student, he allegedly and infamously told an SJP rally, “Take a look at the type of names on the buildings around campus — Haas, Zellerbach — and decide who controls this university.” And why was SJP holding a rally that day? To protest the dozens of arrests made of SJP activists who disrupted a Holocaust Remembrance Day rally just days earlier. That Bazian actually apologized this time might be a small miracle, but how can we accept something that was clearly contrived? With his back against the wall and a rare lack of support from UC Berkeley administration, he gave in. But what consequences will he face? Can we honestly say Bazian’s reputation or wallet will suffer for his repeated use of anti-Semitic tropes, disguised behind a veil of supposedly “anti-Zionist” political discourse?” Read more

October 27, 2016 – UC Berkeley Jewish Student (Josh) – “Pro-Israel and Jewish students at UC Berkeley feel like they are in a place where their ideas are not valued and they are targeted for their religion or views.” Read more

October 14, 2015 – University of Berkeley Jewish Student (Sarah) – “As Jews, many of us experience a climate of anti-Semitism on the UC Berkeley campus, if not in the larger East Bay area. However, few people are willing to acknowledge our reality.” Read more

June 12, 2015 – UUniversity of Berkeley Jewish Student (Ori)–– “Anti-Semitism is brushed off. A lot of times, students don’t even know about [the antisemitic graffiti] because it’s just scrubbed off.” Read more

Mar 2015, Jewish UC Berkeley Student (Ori)–“We still find anti-Semitic slogans written on bathrooms. We see swastikas on doors still, but they’re kind of dismissed. They’re painted over because there are just so many things that happened. A lot of students find swastikas and come to me. [They see it] on dorms, on bathroom stalls, just random places on campus.” Read more

Mar 2015, Jewish UC Berkeley Student (Ori)–“[Ori] says the Jewish undergraduates who come to him are often scared” Read more

Mar 2015, Jewish UC Berkeley Student (Ori)–“If anti-Semitic events occur all over Berkeley, they [the administration] should make students feel safe.” Read more

March 2014, Jewish UCLA Student (Avi L.) – “I’m a student who identifies as a Jewish Zionist. As a result of my identity, and involvement in on-campus activism, I’ve been labeled as a quote ‘ZiZi’, shorthand for “Zionist Nazi,’ a quote “radical right winger,” a quote “white supremacist crying about my white privilege” among other things. To say that this sort of name calling is grotesque would be an understatement.” Read more

March 2014, Jewish UCLA Student (Avi L.) – “In my three years at Cal, I’ve noticed that North American college campuses haven’t even become a close substitute as a safe place to practice our Judaism. This is reflected in our native campus climate.” Read more

March 2014, Jewish UCLA Student (Avi L.) – “This is the trade-off many Jewish students have to consider when they decide what will I get involved in my four years at college? Will I get involved with my culture and my identity and subject myself to intimidation and harassment; or will I pursue some other passion…” Read more

March 2014, Jewish UCLA Student (Avi L.) – “Just because someone is allowed to say something doesn’t mean that we need to tacitly endorse it. And that’s what we need from our leadership. We need to be able to, when there is a hateful divestment resolution that’s labeling me as a ‘Zionist Nazi’ when my grandfather has a number tattooed on his arm – to say that this is not OK.” Read more

Antisemitism Tracker

Total Antisemitic Activity:

To see more information on how AMCHA determines antisemitic activity, click HERE.To report a concern, click HERE.

Classification

Date-Description

TARGETING JEWISH STUDENTS AND STAFF:

GENOCIDAL EXPRESSION; HARASSMENT; DENIGRATION; HISTORICAL

2/20/18 – An antisemitic message was posted outside of the office of a Jewish professor which mentioned Hitler, called for killing the professor and included a racist epithet for Jew.

GENOCIDAL EXPRESSION; HISTORICAL

10/11/17 – A flier on the law school bulletin board advertising an event with Alan Dershowitz was found vandalized with a swastika drawn over Dershowitz’s face.

GENOCIDAL EXPRESSION; HISTORICAL

1/15/17 – Antisemitic fliers containing a swastika were printed via open source printers/fax machines that were legally accessed from the internet.

DISCRIMINATION; DEMONIZATION

11/21/16 – Berkeley Law SJP tabled on campus to promote a pledge drive (which started with an open letter on November 16) to not go on a trip to Israel sponsored by Israel & Co, that was being promoted and facilitated by Boalt Jewish Student Association. According to an article in Electronic Intifada, “Copies of the letter were posted to law students’ social media groups and were handed out to individuals.” Nearly 90 students signed the pledge. A student held a demonizing sign on campus in support of the pledge drive during the November 21 tabling event that said, “I pledge not to go on the Israel trip because white supremacy here looks a lot like white supremacy there.”

DISCRIMINATION; DEMONIZATION

11/16/16 – Berkeley Law SJP posted an open letter on Facebook to ask students to sign a pledge that they will not take a trip by Israel & Co to Israel, which was promoted and facilitated by Boalt Jewish Student Association. Berkeley Law SJP then tabled on November 16 to recruit student’s support to sign the pledge. A demonizing sign at the tabled event read, “I pledge not to go on the Israel trip because: pinkwashing (google it).” The term “pinkwashing” is a term that demonizes Israel by falsely accusing Israel of malevolently representing itself as a safe haven for LGBQT people solely in order to hide Israel’s “crimes.”

HARASSMENT; DENIGRATION

9/22/16 – A number of posters appeared on campus that included anti-Semitic rhetoric. The timing coincided with a controversial anti-Zionist DeCal course being taught called, “Palestine: A Settler-Colonial Analysis” whose purpose was designed to delegitimize Israel, and thus was protested by Jewish groups, including groups on campus. The posters said, “Jewish bullies smash free speech at Cal and are pledged $58 billion. Attention Non-Jews: PAY UP AND SHUT UP!”

GENOCIDAL EXPRESSION; DENIGRATION; HISTORICAL

3/25/16 – An antisemitic flier was distributed to networked printers throughout campus, including the campus’s Bilder Lab and 16 other locations. The flier had swastikas and said, “White Man are you Sick and Tired of the Jews Destroying Your Country through Mass Immigration and Degeneracy? Join Us in the Struggle for Global White Supremacy at the Daily Stormer.”

10/14/15 – Cal SJP hosted a rally on Sproul plaza in support of BDS, including the demands to shut down all academic exchange between UC Berkeley and Israel as well as all interaction with Zionist and Jewish organizations on and off campus. The rally included speeches and chants which condoned terrorism, demonized Israel and called for its elimination :”Let it be known that we here at Berkeley support the Intifada!”, “Netanyahu what do you say, how many kids have you killed today?”, and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.

PHYSICAL ASSAULT

10/14/15 – At an SJP rally on Sproul Plaza, an SJP member grabbed a sign from, and then shoved, a pro-Israel Jewish student.

GENOCIDAL EXPRESSION; INTIMIDATION; HISTORICAL

3/2/15 – Graffiti was found in a campus restroom, which read: “Zionists should be sent to the gas chamber.”

2/8/18 – An op-ed in the Daily Cal demonized and delegitimized Israel and called for BDS, stating, “Tamimi’s case is not an isolated incident. In our opinion, it is representative of the policies implemented to systematically ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their land…If the UC Board of Regents had any form of accountability to the students it claims to represent, we would also call on them to divest from companies that profit from and are complicit in the Israeli apartheid regime.”

DEMONIZATION

11/15/17 – SJP held the event “Grassroots Jerusalem: Our Hope Will Never Die.” The description for the event stated that Fayrouz Sharqawi would discuss “community organizing against the daily ethinc cleansing of Palestinians from Jerusalem.” The event was co-sponsored by Norcal Friends of Sabeel, Bay Area Jewish Voice for Peace and Middle East Children Alliance.

11/2/17 – The Center for Race & Gender and Law Studients for Justice in Palestine co-sponsored the event, “Colonial Legalism, 100 Years Since Balfour w/ Dr. Hatem Bazian” at Boalt Hall. During the event, Bazian demonized and delegitimized Israel throughout. The talk was built on the premise that Israel’s creation is “settler-colonialism,” and that the Balfour Declaration’s very foundation was “for the sole purpose to provide a cover for the outright civilized thievery of Palestine.” He went on to claim, “Israel built its foundation on acts of genocide and dispossession and ethnic cleansing. All of the orchards the villages with heavily cultivatable fields, all of those were taken and Israel built itself on acts of ethnic cleansing and confiscation of land and property.” He accused Israel of carrying out “hundreds of massacres.” He said that “the systematic use of violence as a matter of state policy against the Palestinians has never stopped.” He falsely accused Israel of being “an apartheid state.” He said Israel is a nuclear state that obtained nuclear weapons via material “stolen out of our own US labs.” He belittled the notion that Jews are a people, suggesting that they do not deserve self-determination since they are not a people. Finally, Bazian called for BDS, including an academic boycott.

DELEGITIMIZATION

11/1/17 – SJP held the event, “Remembering Balfour: 100 Years of Zionist Colonization.” The description for the event stated, ” We are excited to host Dr. Hatem Bazian, Dr. Hisham Ahmed, and Jennifer Mogannem on this panel moderated by Cal alum Taliah Mirmalek… [The Balfour letter] paved the way for Zionist colonization of historic Palestine, leading to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians known as al-Nakba, the establishment of an ethnic-exclusive settler-colonial state, and an ongoing military occupation.”

DEMONIZATION

10/13/17 – A demonizing cartoon was published in the Daily Cal that depicted Alan Dershowitz’s head inside a cut-out of his book, “The Liberal Case for Israel” with him smiling, a rainbow, and children. The cartoon depicted his body behind the cut-out stepping on a person who had been carrying a Palestinian flag, flattening the person, and his hand was holding up an IDF soldier with a large gun standing over a dead person with blood around the body and blood dripping off his hand. The cartoon was created by a member of the editorial staff.

HISTORICAL; DENYING JEWS SELF-DETERMINATION

4/28/17 – The Center for Middle East Studies (CMES) hosted a panel discussion event entitled “6 Days, 50 Years: 1967 and the Politics of Time.” According to a report from an attendee, during the Q & A period, a woman said she had spent many years trying to figure out “who is a Jew,” and the only people who seemed to have figured it out were the Nazis. None of the panelists refuted her statement, and in fact condoned it by agreeing that identifying who is Jewish is difficult. In addition, one of the panelists, Professor Dallesheh, responded to a question about Israel’s right to exist by confirming that she believed Israel did not have the right to exist as a Jewish state.

DEMONIZATION

4/27/17 – JVP for Peace Bay Area and SJP at UC Berkeley hosted an event entitled “Obliterated Families,” featuring talks by two reporters, Ann Paq and Ala Qandil. In her talk, Qandil demonized Israel by falsely accusing the Israeli military of deliberately targeting families during the 2014 Gaza war, saying, “Many families were targeted intentionally, with very precise guided missiles…It was Israeli policy to hit this most fundamental structure of the Gaza society that allows people to cope and function under siege.”

DENYING JEWS SELF-DETERMINATION

3/23/17 – Bears for Palestine and SJP held the event, “Resistance Through Art: A Night of Spoken Word.” Concluding remarks included calling for the right of return, which would effectively eliminate Israel as a Jewish state. This event was sponsored and funded by Ethnic Studies Fifth Account.

DELEGITIMIZATION

3/23/17 – SJP re-enacted a “mock checkpoint” near an “apartheid wall” in the background that read in large letters, “Israeli Apartheid.”

DEMONIZATION

3/21/17 – SJP held a “die-in” on campus. Two of the “dead” held posters saying, “Zionism is Racism,” and another held a sign saying, “Stop Israeli Occupation Forces from Killing Palestinian Children in Cold Blood.” A large banner read, “White men building walls, re-writing history, sound familiar?”

DELEGITIMIZATION

3/1/17 – Bears for Palestine launched a “Nakba 2017” platform and hub for the campus community “in hopes of cementing awareness for the call of a free Palestine, challenging Zionist occupation and apartheid.”

DEMONIZATION; DELEGITIMIZATION

11/29/16 – Berkeley Law SJP held the event, “Film and Discussion with Noura Erakat ‘Gaza in Context.’” In the film, Erekat demonized Israel, falsely claiming that the state “directly targeted Palestinian civilians.” She further went on to state, “Even if Hamas were to disappear, Israel’s policies towards the tiny coastal enclave would go uninterrupted… The Gaza Strip represents the most vivid and grotesque form of Israel’s settler-colonial ambitions.”

DEMONIZATION; BDS ACTIVITY (CALLS FOR BDS)

10/27/16 – SJP held the “3rd Annual International Day of Action on University Campuses for Palestine.” The advertisement for the event called for BDS and represented actions consistent with the academic boycott of Israel, including, “Make this call of action part of campus education by holding teach-ins, rallies, sit-ins, civil disobedience, and push for BDS activities. No to Academic Complicity with Israeli Occupation, No to Study Abroad Programs in Israel, No Investments in Apartheid and Occupation Supporting Companies, No to University Presidents’ Visits to Israel, No Campus Police Training or Cooperation with Israeli Security, No Joint Research or Conferences with Israeli Institutions, No Cooperation with Hasbara Networks on College Campuses, No to Targeting Faculty for Speaking Against Israeli Crimes, No to Administrative Limits on Free Speech Rights of Palestine Activists, No to University Coordination and Strategizing with the ADL, JCRC, AJC, Stand With US, ZOA, Israeli Consulate to Limit Students Pro-Palestine Constitutionally Protected Activities.” A sign at the event demonized Israel stating, “Zionism is Racism.”

DELEGITIMIZATION

8/29/16 – UC Berkeley offered a 1-unit decal course entitled, “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis” with course facilitator Paul Hadweh and faculty sponsor Dr. Hatem Bazian. The course title and syllabus provided evidence that the course was designed to delegitimize Israel. The syllabus accuses Israel of being a “settler colonial state.”

DELEGITIMIZATION

6/28/16 – UC Berkeley’s Center for Race & Gender offered students the opportunity to attend a “Palestine De-Colonial Summer School” trip to Turkey, which, according to an SJP post about the summer school, will be focused on delegitimizing Israel with accusations of settler-colonialism, looking at Zionism as a “colonial, racial and Euro-centric Project,” emphasizing “de-centering Zionism and Eurocentric knowledge production” and exploring “Palestinian resistance to colonization.”

DELEGITIMIZATION; BDS ACTIVITY (CALL FOR BDS)

4/8/16 – An op-ed piece in the student newspaper falsely referred to “Israel’s apartheid state” and “discriminatory apartheid regime” and called for BDS as a call for “Israel to end colonization of [all the land as] Palestinian land.”

DENYING JEWS SELF-DETERMINATION; DELEGITIMIZATION

3/29/16 – SJP erected a mock “apartheid wall“, which contained on one panel an image of all of Israel replaced with a Palestinian flag, insinuating that Israel as a Jewish state should cease to exist, Additionally, large letters on the wall read “Israeli Apartheid”, which falsely states that Israel is an apartheid state.

HISTORICAL; COMPARING JEWS TO NAZIS; DEMONIZATION

10/22/15 – Canadian-Israeli journalist David Sheen spoke about racism and homophobia in Israel. In his talk, Sheen employed several antisemitic tropes: Sheen falsely accused Israel of being a racist state whose leadership aspired towards a “theocracy” whose goal is to ignite a “race war” through violent means, including by “burning babies,” firebombing, stabbing attacks and other acts of brutality towards Arabs, black Africans and LGBTQ individuals; he demonized sacred Jewish texts, including the Torah, Talmud, and Tanya, accusing them of being deeply racist and calling for the brutal murder of non-Jews and homosexuals; and he compared “racist” Jews who believe that Jews should not intermarry to Nazis, calling efforts to prevent intermarriage “a eugenics program.” Sheen’s talk was sponsored by Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project, and co-sponsored by Cal SJP, Cal MSA, and Zaytuna College.

DEMONIZATION; DELEGITIMIZATION

9/24/15 – The Center for Race and Gender sponsored a talk by Ethnic Studies Professor Keith Feldman entitled “A Shadow over Palestine: The Imperial Life of Race in America.” In his talk, Feldman falsely accused Zionism of being “a symbolic storehouse for…colonial violence” and Israel of “settler colonialism,” racism and “white supremacy.”

DEMONIZATION; DELEGITIMIZATION; BDS ACTIVITY (CALLS FOR BDS)

2/25/15 – SJP erected wood barriers as a “faux security checkpoint” at the Sather Gate. The barriers were painted with messages that delegitimized Israel and condoned terror: “Israeli Apartheid” and “Resist state violence.” The SJP members also dressed up like Israeli soldiers with cardboard guns and mistreated “Palestinians” trying to pass through the “checkpoint“. The SJP issued a statement saying that the action was to promote BDS.

2/22/15 – SJP served fake eviction notices to students in a campus residence hall, in order to dramatize Israel’s alleged policy of expelling Palestinians. In a press release about the eviction notices, SJP said: “With this action, we are calling on the UC Regents to honor the consensus in favor of divestment.”

CONDONING TERRORISM; DEMONIZATION

1/30/15 – The UC Berkeley Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity office posted an inflammatory article entitled, “Rhetoric of racism, from Ferguson to Palestine” by Nadia Barhoum, a researcher at the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UCB. The article glorified Hamas and claimed that “Israel was founded after a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population that continues until today.”

BDS ACTIVITY:

CALLS FOR BDS

3/31/16 – SJP held a die-in and march, which started in downtown Berkeley and then went through campus. During the die-in, SJP leaders called on the UC Board of Regents to divest from Israeli businesses.

BDS EVENTS

9/18/15 – UC Berkeley Department of Near Eastern studies (NES) lecturer Hatem Bazian provided the introduction at an event featuring Omar Barghouti co-sponsored by NES and 4 other UCB department. In his introduction, Bazian urged audience members to “sign the mailing list” for the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI). Omar Barghouti’s lecture was called “BDS: Academia’s Role in the Struggle for Freedom and Justice in Palestine,” and he used his talk to urge academics to support the academic boycott of Israel.

CALLS FOR BDS

3/6/15 – 3 professors from UC Berkeley were among the co-authors of an op-ed supporting the anti-Israel divestment resolutions on UC campuses: Rutie Adler, Hatem Bazian, and Samera Esmeir.

February 16, 2017: The Daily Californian – UC enters collaboration with Israel’s National Technological Innovation Authority(Description note, “Pro-Israel groups expressed displeasure with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, or BDS, movement, while pro-Palestine groups advocated divestment from Israel. Vazquez confirmed in an email that both UCOP and the UC Board of Regents do not support divestment from Israel.”)

January 3, 2017: MLABOYCOTT – Daniel Boyarin’s Statement of Support for an MLA Academic Boycott Resolution (Description note – Daniel Boyarin is the Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture at UC Berkeley and delegitimizes Israel with false claims of apartheid stating, “I am on record as a supporter of BDS and of a limited academic boycott as well… Israeli Apartheid is now quite similar structurally to its South African models and similar tactics and ethical, political justifications for boycott are fully in order. I support completely the MLA boycott resolution.”)

August 3, 2016: Jadaliyya – Interview with Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley (Description note, “Our activities usually fall in three main categories: advocacy for BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against the Israeli occupation), direct actions, and educational events…. Q: Q: Does your chapter focus on anti-occupation politics or broader anti-Zionist politics? If one or the other—or sometimes one, and sometimes the other—why have you made that choice, and under what circumstances do you choose to emphasize the occupation versus a broader opposition, or vice-versa? Cal SJP: SJP is not an “anti” organization. Our agenda is positive: we are a group that works toward realizing Palestinian civil, human, and indigenous rights. These include the right of people who were born in Palestine and their descendants to live in their homeland in freedom, dignity, and self-sovereignty. This very simple and obvious right—which every people in the world possesses—has been violated systematically since 1948. First, when Israel ethnically cleansed some 700,000 Palestinians from the territories it occupied; second, when it did not allow them to resettle (as international law requires); third, when Israel conquered additional lands in 1967; and fourth, when Israel withheld (and continues to withhold) basic civil and human rights to these people in the 1967 occupied lands. Since the Zionist movement has consistently and systematically denied these rights from Palestinians, and since the occupation of Palestine is part and parcel of Zionism, our agenda and values indeed collide. Zionism’s core idea is establishing a Jewish state that excludes, oppresses, and denies the rights of Palestinians in various ways. Even “soft-core” Zionists, who support creating a Palestinian homeland in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, deny the right of Palestinian people to naturalize and return to their land. While we undoubtedly oppose Zionism and Israel’s occupation, we prefer to think of ourselves as a group that promotes a positive alternative vision—in which indigenous rights will be recognized and Israel’s racist foundations will be dismantled for the benefit of all people living in the area…. As an organization we consider ourselves part of the BDS movement, which is pan-ideological and leaves itself open on key political questions…”)

April 12, 2016: Arutz Sheva – Latest BDS hero: An Orthodox Jewish professor (Description note – A UC Berkeley professor, Daniel Boyarin, is interviewed and makes numerous antisemitic statements including denying Jews self-determination and comparing Jews to Nazi’s – “Today Boyarin sees Israel per se as illegitimate; a foolish decision and an illegal occupation – even inside the Green Line. “I think Israel was a mistake, a big mistake,” he told Channel 10. “People in a desperate situation do foolish things.” “It’s [Israel] all occupied in my opinion.” In the past Boyarin compared Israel to Apartheid-ridden South Africa. In 2006 he called Israel an apartheid state, condemning it for the “destruction of human rights and democracy”, which he claimed “is at least as severe as that of the South Africans.” During his recent Channel 10 interview, however, Boyarin made direct comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany. “I would say that the actions of the government and some segments of [Israeli] society are very similar to the Nazis,” Boyarin said.”)

April 8, 2016: The Daily Californian – Lived experience clarifies campus’s Palestine debate (Description note, “The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, or BDS, movement is one way SJP and pro-Palestinian activists aim to hold Israel accountable for their actions. The movement aims to increase economic and political pressure on Israel to end colonization of Palestinian land, respect the right of return for Palestinian refugees and reach full equality with Palestinian citizens of Israel.”)

November 12, 2015: JWeekly – U.C. Berkeley chancellor responds to concerns about Jewish student safety on campus(Description note, UC Berkeley chancellor states in a letter to ZOA that is published, “At the same time, I understand that constitutionally protected speech may be disturbing and insulting to Jewish students — yet another reason that the engagement and educational efforts I have described above are so important. I also want to state, unequivocally, that we have and will continue to condemn anti-Semitism, although I agree with you when you state that “not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.” As I’m sure you are aware, the regents of the University of California, the governing body of the system, are still discussing how or if the university will adopt a formal definition of anti-Semitism. As U.C. Berkeley’s chancellor, I must await the outcome of those discussions.”)

October 15, 2015: The Daily Californian – Israeli-Palestinian dispute over BDS breaks out on Sproul Plaza (Description note, “The speeches were punctuated with chants led by MSA member Unis Barakat, who emphatically exclaimed, “No justice, no peace,” “Free, free, Palestine” and “End the occupation now” as protesters held up signs and the Palestinian flag. But some of the group’s chants — including “Intifada, intifada, we support the intifada” — proved extremely divisive among pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters. Berman said that while “intifada” literally means “uprising” or “to shake off,” the word cannot be taken out of its historical context and connotative meaning, which refers to the First and Second Intifadas of 1987 and 2000, respectively, that left thousands dead on each side. “It’s incitement,” said Michaela Fried, president of Tikvah, in response to the chant.”)

October 14, 2015: Facebook – Jewish student attacked at UC Berkeley rally (Description note, the student attacked posted on Facebook, “Just to be clear the guy attacked me first and treated me a children murderer because I stand with Israel.”)

October 14, 2015: The Jewish Week – BDS Money Trail Suggests Opaque Funding Network (Description note, “Here is a sample of the student funds provided to SJP in the 2014-15 school year from some of the more challenging campuses: University of California, Berkeley: $600”)

October 14, 2015: EVENT – 2nd Annual International Day of Action on University Campuses launched by SJP at UC Berkeley(Description note, “2nd Annual International Day of Action on University Campuses. Free Palestine, End the Siege on Gaza. – Immigrants and Refugees are welcome-No Human is Illegal – Affirming Global Solidarity with African Americans and Black Lives Matter. October 14th, 2015. A call for activists and organizations on campuses across the world to organize massive protests on every college and university campus. Make this call of action part of campus education by holding teach-ins, rallies, sit-ins, civil disobedience, and push for BDS activities.
No to Academic Complicity with Israeli Occupation
No to Study Abroad Programs in Israel
No Investments in Apartheid and Occupation Supporting Companies
No to University Presidents’ Visits to Israel
No Campus Police Training or Cooperation with Israeli Security
No Joint Research or Conferences with Israeli Institutions
No Cooperation with Hasbara Networks on College Campuses
No to Targeting Faculty for Speaking Against Israeli Crimes
No to Administrative Limits on Free Speech Rights of Palestine Activists
No to University Coordination and Strategizing with the ADL, JCRC, AJC, Stand With US, ZOA, Israeli Consulate to Limit Students Pro-Palestine Constitutionally Protected Activities.

Free Palestine, End the Siege on Gaza and Build the Movement on Your Campus!
Wear black and the Palestinian Kuffiyeh and make it a visible symbol on campus!
If you’re planning events on your campus, please submit your information for the event on the following link: https://ida-palestine.github.io/#events”)

October 13, 2015: The Daily Californian – Anti-Semitism should apply to multiple groups (Description note, “Now, you may be asking: How is an individual who is targeting a Palestinian activist and his audience anti-Semitic? It is because I and most of the people in the room were Semites, which are defined, according to Dictionary.com, as “members of various ancient and modern peoples originating in southwestern Asia, including the Akkadians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs.” Although my religion is Roman Catholicism and I was born in the United States, I am also half-Lebanese, born to a first-generation son of Lebanese immigrants. In addition to French and English, my grandfather spoke many Arabic dialects, Aramaic and Hebrew. Thus, my children and I are Semites. Unfortunately, the term has been hijacked by the Jewish community and used only to reflect discrimination against Jews and not racism directed at other Semites who may be Muslims, Christians, Atheists or Semitic-speaking peoples of other religious faiths. My experience made me reflect on the recent controversy regarding the UC Board of Regents’ rumored possible adoption of the U.S. Department of State’s definition of anti-Semitism. Surely, a prestigious institution such as UC Berkeley would not adopt an incorrect, exclusively Jewish, biased and racist definition of anti-Semitism. The current definition dismisses the greater majority of Semites who are not of the Jewish faith. If the regents choose to include anti-Semitism in their list of prohibited acts on campuses (which I believe they should), they must also acknowledge that anti-Semitism may be directed at Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Sikhs and Atheists, as well as Jews.”)

October 5, 2015: EVENT – The Palestine Exception to Free Speech: Panel and Reception (Description note, “Palestine Legal has been working on researching and creating a report to document incidents of repression of Palestine solidarity activism and speech on University Campuses. Join us for the launch reception of this report, where over 300 incidents at 65 campuses have been documented! Liz Jackson, an attorney for Pal Legal, will be speaking at the event along with others which include: – Lara Kiswani (Executive Director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center formerly of UC Davis SJP) – Tori Porell (Law Student at Cal, formerly of Northeastern SJP) – Kumars Salehi (Cal SJP, formerly of NYU SJP). Co-Sponsored by: Law Students for Justice in Palestine, Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Law”)

September 30, 2015: Front Page Magazine – BERKELEY, BAZIAN, AND BARGHOUTI PROMOTE BDS – Hatred and bigotry reach new levels in Berkeley. (Description note, “Barghouti followed by explaining “Why it’s so important for academics in the country to support the academic boycott.” As a movement that, he maintained, “rejects all forms of discrimination, including anti-Semitism,” BDS is something “any decent liberal” should support. If one were to judge by Barghouti’s delivery alone, which was calm, measured, and, at times, humorous, singling out the world’s lone Jewish state for economic boycott—which he excused by citing “U.S. support” as the deciding factor—would appear entirely reasonable. Why boycott academia, “the most progressive sector of any society?” Barghouti asked rhetorically. His answer cited Israeli academe’s complicity in “branding” the country as what it, in fact, truly is: a liberal democracy with gay and women’s rights. He then accused Israeli universities of being “entrenched in their role of planning, implementing, justifying, and whitewashing Israel’s regime of oppression.” He claimed that BDS “targets institutions, not individuals”; thus, it’s acceptable for “an Israeli professor” to be “invited to teach at Berkeley,” given that there is no “agreement with an Israeli university” or any “institutional links.” Barghouti asserted that such a boycott constitutes a mere loss of “privileges,” not a “threat to academic freedom.”)

September 25, 2015: ADL – University Departments Sponsor Key BDS Advocates (Description note, “On Sep­tem­ber 18, 2015, Omar Bargh­outi, a found­ing mem­ber of the Pales­tin­ian Cam­paign for the Aca­d­e­mic and Cul­tural Boy­cott of Israel (PACBI), spoke at the Uni­ver­sity of California-Berkeley. His pre­sen­ta­tion, which dis­cussed the role which he believes acad­e­mia should play in BDS, was spon­sored by the cam­pus Stu­dents for Jus­tice in Pales­tine (SJP) chap­ter and co-sponsored by eight dif­fer­ent Uni­ver­sity depart­ments, includ­ing the Cen­ter for Race and Gen­der, Asian Amer­i­can Stud­ies, Native Amer­i­can Stud­ies, Eth­nic Stud­ies, Eng­lish, Chi­cano Stud­ies, Near East­ern Stud­ies, and African Amer­i­can Studies.”)

September 24, 2015: EVENT – A Shadow over Palestine: The Imperial Life of Race in America (Description note, A Shadow Over Palestine: The Imperial Life of Race in America, presentation by Professor Keith Feldman of Ethnic Studies, commentary by Judith Butler. Description includes, “Focusing on the period from 1960 to 1985, author Keith P. Feldman reveals the centrality of Israel and Palestine in postwar U.S. imperial culture.”)

September 19, 2015: Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers – Omar Barghouti met with protests at UC Berkeley (Description note, “On Friday, October 18, Omar Barghouti spoke to an audience at UC Berkeley’s Dwinelle Hall in an attempt to justify academic boycotts as part of a continued effort to isolate Israel. Via Emunah: UC Berkeley Students meet Omar Barghouti’s message of BDS intolerance with their own of academic freedom and free exchanges of ideas between all people. “Silencing ideas is stiffing progress” “UC Berkeley Academic Departments Support Limiting Academia” “Banning the ideas of one nation is Discrimination” This assault on academic freedom was sponsored by several UC Berkeley academic departments, including The Center for Race and Gender, Asian American Studies, Native American Studies, Ethnic Studies, English, Chicano Studies, Near Eastern Studies.”)

August 18, 2015: Black Solidarity with Palestine – 2015 Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine – 1,100 Signatories, 39 Groups (DEMONIZATION, SUPPORT FOR BDS, DELEGITIMIZATION – Description note – UCLA Afrikan Student Union, BlaQue UCLA, Black Student Alliance at Yale, Black Student Alliance Executive Board – St. Louis University, Black Student Union at UC Berkeley, Columbia University Black Students’ Organization, Spoken Word Alliance at Tufts, Tufts Pan-African Alliance, and Stanford NAACP Executive Committee are among the signatories of a letter that demonizes, supports BDS and delegitimizes Israel with statements of, “Our support extends to those living under occupation and siege, Palestinian citizens of Israel, and the 7 million Palestinian refugees exiled in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. The refugees’ right to return to their homeland in present-day Israel is the most important aspect of justice for Palestinians….US and Israeli officials and media criminalize our existence, portray violence against us as “isolated incidents,” and call our resistance “illegitimate” or “terrorism.” These narratives ignore decades and centuries of anti-Palestinian and anti-Black violence that have always been at the core of Israel and the US. We recognize the racism that characterizes Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is also directed against others in the region, including intolerance, police brutality, and violence against Israel’s African population. Israeli officials call asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea “infiltrators” and detain them in the desert, while the state has sterilized Ethiopian Israelis without their knowledge or consent. These issues call for unified action against anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and Zionism. .. We wholeheartedly endorse Palestinian civil society’s 2005 call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and call on Black and US institutions and organizations to do the same. We urge people of conscience to recognize the struggle for Palestinian liberation as a key matter of our time…We offer this statement first and foremost to Palestinians, whose suffering does not go unnoticed and whose resistance and resilience under racism and colonialism inspires us. “)

April 16, 2015: The Daily Californian – ASUC senators express concerns about Richmond Bay campus, talk addressing anti-Semitism (Description note, “the senate appointed ASUC senators Ori Herschmann and Haley Broder to a committee to combat anti-Semitism created by the senate in February. In addition to the two senators, other voting members will be the ASUC president, the Jewish Student Union president, a faculty member and a student member. According to Herschmann, the group will try to set standards for what is acceptable expression and what could be perceived as anti-Semitic. “This committee has nothing to do with Israel,” Herschmann said. “This committee is about the right for Jewish students to walk on this campus and feel safe.””)

April 10, 2015: The Daily Californian – Chancellor’s Corner: Discourse on free speech, civility gives us lessons to take forward (Description note – UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks writes, “Meanwhile, other campus communities have expressed deep concerns. For example, anti-Semitic graffiti found in campus buildings has led members of our Jewish student community to question whether we are doing enough to prevent these expressions of hate. At the same time, many Muslim students worried that Bill Maher’s invitation to the December commencement was an expression of institutional support for Islamophobia.”)

April 9, 2015: Jweekly.com – Angry rhetoric obfuscates BDS movement’s real goal (Description note – Ronald Hendel is the Norma and Sam Dabby professor of Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at U.C. Berkeley who writes, “The core principles of the SJP and the BDS movement therefore call for an end to the State of Israel. Accordingly, both are opposed to a two-state solution, in which Israel and Palestine live peacefully side by side. One of the writers of the Daily Cal op-ed, Kumars Salehi, makes this explicit in a recent article about BDS in the Berkeley Journal of Sociology. He writes that the BDS movement “provide[s] an alternative analysis to the segregationist paradigm of ‘two states for two people.’ ” According to him and other BDS spokespeople — including U.C. Berkeley professor Judith Butler — the goal is a binational state of Palestine, which will take the place of Israel. This means that the SJP and BDS oppose the official position of the U.S., Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the Arab League and the European Union, which all call for a peaceful two-state solution.”)

March 26, 2015: Jewish Standard – Universities punish bigotry — but not anti-Jewish bigotry (Description note, “At UC Berkeley, a Jewish student was holding a sign that said “Israel Wants Peace,” when she was rammed from behind with a filled shopping cart; she suffered injuries that required medical attention. Her attacker had a history of threatening and assaultive behavior, but the university let him off the hook and merely put him on probation, which allowed him to remain on campus and continue to terrify his victim. Why?”)

March 23, 2015: The Times of Israel – The image of dead anti-Semitism (Description note – UC Berkeley student writes, “…if US campuses are any indication of our future, us Jews are in for a rough, rough ride if something doesn’t change soon.”

March 19, 2015: RT – Berkeley’s Swastika Problem: Are America’s Liberal Colleges Breeding Anti-Semitism? (Description note, ““We still find anti-Semitic slogans written on bathrooms. We see swastikas on doors still, but they’re kind of dismissed. They’re painted over because there are just so many things that happened,” says Ori… a senior at UC Berkeley who serves in the student government. “A lot of students find swastikas and come to me. [They see it] on dorms, on bathroom stalls, just random places on campus.”)

(Description note, “Furthermore, the word intifada is a representation of the Palestinian struggle, a struggle with which I have and always will stand in solidarity. The use of this word gives the Palestinian people hope, and I find it extremely disturbing that students are delegitimizing the reality Palestinians go through on a daily basis by saying this word is “triggering.” To me, this word is uplifting, it is beautiful, and it represents the struggle of all oppressed people.”)

February 24, 2015: The Daily Californian – ASUC senate committees move forward with bills on anti-Semitism, new student fee (Description note – “A Bill Condemning Anti-Semitism, SB-55, also passed in Monday’s meeting. The bill condemns what it refers to as “hateful incidents” that occurred at the UC Davis chapter house of Alpha Epsilon Pi in January, in addition to creating an ad hoc ASUC committee to fight anti-Semitism on campus. The bill also requires ASUC executives to ask Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and dean of students Joseph Greenwell to hold a meeting regarding anti-Semitism.”)

January 30, 2015: UC Berkeley Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity – Rhetoric of racism, from Ferguson to Palestine (Description note, this piece is on the UC Berkeley Equity, Inclusion and Diversity website, “moreover, many headlines would focus only on Hamas rockets, thus making it seem as though Israel was actually fighting against a viable military power. This storyline assumes a false symmetry in power structure: Hamas is a political party that has been under siege, along with the entirety of the Gaza Strip, for the last seven years and under Israeli military occupation since 1967… Israel was founded after a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian population that continues until today.”)

October 30, 2014: The Hill – ‘Real Time’ meets the ‘safe space’ (Description note – According to UC Berkeley student Henry, “the issue is that we do experience a lot of anti-Semitism in a lot of different ways.”)

August 31, 2014: American Thinker- Hamas’s Academic Apologists (Description Note: “Ratcheting up the absurdity, Hatem Bazian, a lecturer in Near Eastern studies and director of the Islamophobia Research & Documentation Project at the University of California, Berkeley, equated Israeli policy with slavery and accused Israel of being behind Latin American death squads: ‘We need to make a link between what is taking place today in Palestine and the whole transnational, anti-colonial, anti-slavery, and anti-oppression struggle. . . . You need to understand the link of Israel to what’s taking place in Latin America. . . . Israel was helping the death squads and training them.'”)

August 16, 2014: EVENT- Block The Boat for Gaza! (Description note -SJP at UC Berkeley, SJP at Stanford and GUPS at SFSU are all involved. Text includes – “Stop Israel at the Port. Zionism isn’t welcome on our Coast! West Coast Blockade of the Israeli Zim Ship. Port of Oakland. STOP THE SIEGE ON GAZA! END THE COLONIAL OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE! RIGHT OF RETURN FOR ALL PALESTINIAN REFUGEES! FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS! BOYCOTT, DIVEST, SANCTION!.. We should always remember that the Palestinian resistance did not begin with Israel’s latest bombardment, nor did it begin during the last bombardment. It has been going on since 1948, since Israel came into existence. And it will not cease until Israeli apartheid falls. We refuse to allow Israel to conduct its business as usual, here in the Bay and everywhere!” Every Saturday, the Israeli owned Zim shipping line docks and unloads its cargo at the Port of Oakland. Let this action be the beginning of a sustained campaign to stop the Israeli ship from ever unloading in our town. From Seattle to Oakland to Los Angeles – turn the Israeli ship around! We encourage all of our allies on the West Coast to join us in ensuring that Zim ships are not welcome anywhere.”)

August 12, 2014: COMPILED LIST – Supporters of UAW 2865 Resolution Calling for Academic Boycott of Israel (Description note – contains the names of graduate students, teaching assistants, readers, etc who exclaimed public support of the antisemitic Student Union Worker’s BDS resolution, which stated the need to “educate” others on the “settler-colonial” and “apartheid” nature of the Jewish state).